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Man arrested for blast outside SC

The Delhi police on Tuesday arrested Upendra Mohanty, 50, for exploding three crude bombs at the gate of the Supreme Court of India on Tuesday morning. He apparently hurled the bombs after being refused permission to meet the Chief Justice of India.

Three persons, two policemen and a fruit seller, received minor injuries due to the blasts. The security staff of the apex court and some plain clothed personnel of the Delhi police deployed in the court apprehended Mohanty on the spot. Mohanty, apparently, did not make an effort to escape after the incident.

According to Suresh Roy, Joint Commissioner of Police (New Delhi range), "Mohanty had come to the Supreme Court this year after his bag was stolen at the Red Fort on August 24, to meet the Chief Justice. The security guards prevented him from entering. Following this, he vowed to come back and teach them a lesson," Roy said.

"He had arrived in Delhi from Orissa on Tuesday morning by train. He had also brought along the necessary ingredients to manufacture crude bombs. After assembling them, he reached the Supreme Court around 1130 hours (IST)."

"Twenty minutes later, he hurled three crude bombs at the boundary walls of the court near one of the two gates on the Bhagwan Dass Road side. He had aimed the bombs at the security personnel," Roy told newspersons at a hurriedly convened press conference.

Roy said that Mohanty had spent twenty-five years in jail and there were three attempt-to-murder cases against him in Orissa. "He tried to kill his grandmother when she did not give his father a share of the property. He also attempted to kill the police officer investigating the case against him," Roy said.

However, Mohanty has been discharged in all the cases, Roy informed and also described him as a mentally unstable person.

"It is clearly not a terrorism-related incident," Roy said.

A woman fruit seller, whose son Santosh was injured in the blast, said it happened so suddenly that her son did not have the time to react.

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